169. Decoding the World’s First Writing | People I (Mostly) Admire
Audio Brief
Show transcript
This episode features Irving Finkel, a British Museum curator and cuneiform expert, discussing the world's first writing system and its profound revelations.
There are three key takeaways. First, the decipherment of cuneiform provides profound insights into ancient history. Second, a Babylonian flood story reveals a startlingly different ark and predates biblical accounts. Third, writing evolved from practical administrative origins to complex storytelling.
Cuneiform, developed by the Sumerians around 3500 BC in Mesopotamia, is the oldest known writing system. Its "wedge-shaped" impressions were deciphered in the 19th century using trilingual inscriptions, similar to the Rosetta Stone, unlocking millennia of lost knowledge.
A pivotal discovery was a cuneiform tablet from 1700 BC detailing a great flood and a man building an ark. Curator Irving Finkel's later decipherment of the "Ark Tablet" revealed the most surprising detail: the vessel was not a traditional boat, but a giant, round coracle.
Writing began as pictographic signs for administrative purposes, such as accounting. Over time, it evolved to represent sounds and syllables, allowing for the creation of rich literature, hymns, and intricate narratives, transforming human communication.
This episode demonstrates how ancient texts offer thrilling discoveries, reshaping our understanding of human history and cultural narratives.
Episode Overview
- This episode features an interview with Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum and a leading expert on cuneiform, the world's first writing system.
- Finkel provides a crash course on the history of cuneiform, explaining its origins in ancient Mesopotamia, its evolution from pictures to symbols, and how scholars eventually deciphered it.
- The conversation highlights the groundbreaking discovery of a Babylonian flood story on a clay tablet that predates the biblical story of Noah's Ark by a thousand years.
- The episode explores the passion and excitement of working with ancient texts and the profound connections they reveal between ancient civilizations and modern culture.
Key Concepts
- Cuneiform: The oldest known form of writing, developed by the ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia around 3500 BC. The name means "wedge-shaped," referring to the impressions made by a stylus in wet clay tablets.
- Evolution of Writing: The system began as pictographic signs (simple drawings) to represent objects for administrative purposes (like accounting for taxes) and later evolved to represent sounds and syllables, allowing for the creation of literature, hymns, and complex narratives.
- Decipherment: The code of cuneiform was cracked in the 19th century, largely thanks to trilingual inscriptions that contained the same text in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian, similar to how the Rosetta Stone helped decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- The Flood Story: A key moment in cuneiform studies was the discovery of a tablet describing a great flood and a man tasked by a god to build an ark. This tablet, dating back to around 1700 BC, contains a detailed story that is a clear predecessor to the biblical account of Noah's Ark.
- The Ark Tablet: Finkel himself deciphered a particularly special tablet that provided detailed, "first-person" instructions on how to build the ark. One of the most shocking revelations was that the ark was described not as a traditional boat, but as a giant, round coracle.
Quotes
- At 00:06 - "When I say the word cuneiform, what comes to mind? If you're like me, the answer is not much." - The host, Steve Levitt, introduces the topic by acknowledging that cuneiform is an obscure subject for most people.
- At 00:31 - "Once you give up six or seven years of your life to learn cuneiform, everything changes... your daily life is full of throb and excitement, money, women, cars, everything you could ever ask for. It's just the most fantastic career and nobody does it apart from a few decrepit nerds like myself." - Irving Finkel offers a humorous and passionate endorsement of his niche profession, playfully exaggerating its glamorous rewards.
- At 21:32 - "...it induced in him this quite bizarre, uncontrollable reaction, which I've come to the conclusion is a kind of epilepsy. I think he was provoked into an epileptic fit by this discovery because it was so unexpected." - Finkel describes the legendary reaction of George Smith, the 19th-century scholar who first deciphered the Babylonian flood story and was so overcome with excitement that he began taking his clothes off in the British Museum.
- At 25:45 - "This is the most incredible discovery of your life... a man brings this in, and then what happens next?" - Levitt expresses his astonishment that Finkel allowed the owner of the priceless Ark Tablet to simply walk away with it after its initial identification.
- At 28:42 - "It was a round boat." - Finkel reveals the single most surprising and revolutionary detail from the Ark Tablet he deciphered: the Babylonian ark was circular, like a giant coracle, completely changing the common perception of the vessel.
Takeaways
- The study of ancient writings can reveal profound and unexpected connections to our most fundamental cultural and religious stories.
- The invention of writing was a gradual process, likely driven by practical needs like administration and tax collection before it was used for literature and storytelling.
- A seemingly obscure passion can lead to a lifetime of thrilling discovery and reshape our understanding of human history.
- Historical narratives are often recycled and adapted across cultures, with core elements persisting for thousands of years.
